VOLLEYBALL: Carmi takes down Du Quoin in semifinals at Regional

Carmi-White County was too much for Du Quoin in Tuesday's IHSA Class 2A Volleyball Regional in Johnston City as the Lady Bulldogs left with a 25-13, 25-12 win in the semifinals.

Du Quoin led briefly in set two 5-3, but Carmi answered with a devastating 17-1 run to take command for good.

"I think our girls wanted to make sure that they weren't done playing tonight," said DHS head coach Jo Dill. "I think they wanted to play safe, not make errors, not miss and that kind of thing. Sometimes when you do that it actually causes errors and allows the other team to run their offense, has us off and not able to do the things that we want to do with the ball. At one point I told them 'go out and hit the ball."

"We were getting stuck in some rotations. (Carmi) wasn't giving anything up. They kept swinging, I thought we had some really good rallies with them, we just had a little trouble getting it down"

Jordyn Bullar, Kenzie Jackson and Rylea McDonald each finished with 3 kills for Du Quoin. Taylor Gates led digs with 11, Alaina Caldwell had 9, Bullar and Jackson 8 apiece. Caldwell added a team-high 7 assists. The Lady Indians' season ends with a record of 7-23 overall.

"A lot of these girls played or started for me as sophomores, they've put their entire hearts and souls into it," Dill said. "For three years they've been an awesome group to coach. I had a really hard time saying goodbye to them in our last huddle, they're a group I'm going to miss a lot."

The Lady Bulldogs will take on Anna-Jonesboro in Thursday's championship match at Johnston City.